Soloist Kiyon Ross is well-known to PNB audiences as an outstanding performer and accomplished choreographer. Recently, he’s taken on a new role assisting choreographer Twyla Tharp in creating her latest work, Waiting at the Station. I sat down with him last week to discuss how he fits in to her the process of […]
Stories are the bridge between the public and the art form. We can’t get them to watch The Four Temperaments until we get them on that bridge. And I can do those stories in ways that haven’t been done before.
Kent Stowell in Mindy […]
Our touring party arrived in Spoleto yesterday afeternoon from Rome and the Boals drove in from Florence. All assembled in the garden court of the Cavaliere Palace hotel for a welcome reception with piles of delicious local eats and plenty of cold drinks. What a group we are with 21 in our touring […]
George Balanchine rarely spoke about his ballets or the process of making them. Didn't the ballets speak for themselves and, besides, aren't the critics always offering their analysis of what the artist was thinking? He made an exception for Apollo, though, calling Stravinsky's score "a turning point in my life. It seemed to tell me that I could dare not to use everything—that I, too, could eliminate."
There is a new tradition brewing around Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Phelps Center this time of year, and that is the beginning of the wonderful process of NEXT STEP. This distinctive performance where PNB Company dancers choreograph new works for our most advanced students in PNB School’s Professional Division is set for June 16, […]
Artistic Director’s Notebook: Don Quixote
Dear Friends,
Join us in sunny Barcelona this weekend without the airfare or the time change! Alexei Ratmansky’s Don Quixote is here, and what a spectacular, over-the-top, inspiring moment for PNB. Here are a few facts you may not […]
Behind the Scenes: Don Quixote with Principal Dancer Maria Chapman
What role(s) are you learning for Don Quixote? Have you danced in other Don Quixote productions before?
This will be my first production of Don Quixote, and I am learning two roles; Mercedes and the Queen of […]
Act I, Scene I
In Don Quixote’s study, his niece Joanna is talking to Carasco, his servant. They are worried about the Don, who is slowly but surely being driven mad by all his reading. They therefore decide to hide the Don’s books.
Meanwhile, Don Quixote comes into the study, totally […]
Act II, Scene I
On a plateau in the mountains, a troupe of traveling actors has set up camp. Kitri and Basilio appear and ask the actors to help them escape. While the group performs, Kitri and Basilio put on costumes and join in. When Lorenzo and Gamache arrive at the camp, they are […]
Act III, Scene I
Kitri and Basilio are enjoying themselves with Espada, Mercedes, and a group of friends in a tavern filled with gypsies, bullfighters, and other high-spirited folk. Kitri thinks she has escaped her forced marriage to Gamache. Unfortunately, it is not so easy, as her […]